Elijah wakes up in a cage, and can barely remember anything about himself or his situation. He fights his way alone to escape a building full of bizarre and deadly monsters, while learning disturbing truths about himself. Once he finds the way out, he has to pass it up and keep fighting to rescue hiw wife and child from his nemesis.

Author Bio.

has previously published three other books and various short stories, as well as spending two years as a journalist for The Michigan Daily Newspaper. He studied creative writing under the tutelage of Jonis Agee, author of “Strange Angels” and “South of Resurrection.”

Growing up in Ontario, Canada, M.J. was the only child of a single mom. Her passion for the arts ignited at a young age as she wrote adventure stories and read them aloud to close family and friends. The dramatic arts became a focus in high school as an aid to understanding character motivation in her writing. Majoring in Theatre Production at York University, with a minor in English, she went on to teach both elementary and high school for 10 years throughout Simcoe County. M.J. currently lives with her husband and young son in Caledon, Ontario. She keeps busy these days with her emerging authors’ website Infinite Pathways: hosting writing contests, providing editing services, free publicity tips, book reviews, and opportunities for authors to build their writing platform and portfolio. In addition she writes articles and edits freelance as she continues her own creative writing working toward completing the next book in the Chronicles Series. Time’s Tempest: The Chronicles of Xannia (1) is M.J.’s debut science fiction novel. She firmly believes that if she hadn’t been born a Virgo, she wouldn’t be half as organized as she needs to be to get everything done from one day to the next.

Lawyers: Free man wrongfully locked up for decades

.

View gallery

This March 15, 1980 proclamation by then Texas Governor Mark White commutes Jerry Hartsfield’s death …

BAY CITY, Texas (AP) — Attorneys for a Texas man who was kept in prison for more than three decades after his murder conviction was overturned have asked a court to free him so he can get on with his life, saying he’s suffered enough from the mishandling of his case and that key trial evidence has gone missing.

Attorney Jeffrey Newberry wrote in a recent court petition that the state clearly violated Jerry Hartfield’s right to a speedy trial by waiting decades to retry him for the 1976 death of Eunice Lowe, who was beaten to death at the Bay City bus station where she worked as a ticket agent.

“The most serious prejudice a defendant can suffer in being denied a right to a speedy trial is to have his defense possibly impaired,” Newberry wrote. He urged State District Judge Craig Estlinbaum to free Hartsfield “with prejudice,” meaning the state couldn’t retry him on the same charges.

Hartfield, 57, was convicted in 1977 of killing Lowe and sentenced to death, but that conviction was overturned three years later. After prosecutors unsuccessfully appealed that ruling, then-Gov. Mark White commuted Hartfield’s sentence to life in prison in 1983.

Hartfield, who is described in court documents as an illiterate fifth-grade dropout with an IQ of 51, didn’t challenge his continued detention until 2006, when a fellow prisoner pointed out that once his conviction was overturned, there was no sentence to commute. Appeals courts agreed and ordered Hartfield freed or retried. Hartfield is scheduled to stand trial again in April for Lowe’s slaying.

In a court filing, Matagorda County District Attorney Steven Reis rejected the assertion that Hartfield should go free. While acknowledging that the state “may be partially responsible” for the delay in retrying Hartfield, Reis argued that prosecutors didn’t act in bad faith and that Hartfield bears some responsibility.

Hartfield “failed to proffer any evidence that he wanted a speedy trial during this period,” Reis wrote. No evidence supports a finding that Hartfield “actually wanted a new and speedy trial,” that he did anything before 2007 to assert that his right to a speedy trial had been violated, or that the state deliberately acted to delay a retrial, Reis contends.

Newberry contends that the state was solely responsible for the retrial delay.

“Had the state carried out the (appeals court) mandate, Hartfield would not have needed to file the documents that he began filing,” he wrote. “Mr. Hartfield has affirmatively demonstrated that his ability to present a defense has been prejudiced by the delay.”

Newberry also says authorities haven’t been able to find some evidence used to convict Hartfield, including a pickaxe used in the attack or Lowe’s car, which was stolen and later recovered. Furthermore, a Texas Ranger who was a key witness for the prosecution at Hartfield’s 1977 trial has since died, he wrote.

Estlinbaum asked both sides to address some legal questions before he rules on the matter.

At the time of the killing, Hartfield, who grew up in Altus, Okla., was working construction at nuclear power plant near the bus station where Lowe worked. He was arrested within days of the killing in Wichita, Kan., and was convicted and sentenced to death in 1977.

Hartfield disputes a confession police said he gave them that was among the evidence used to convict him. Prosecutors also had an unused bus ticket found at the crime scene that had his fingerprints on it and testimony from witnesses who said he had talked about needing $3,000. Reis said Hartfield led authorities to Lowe’s car in Houston and that his fingerprint was on a piece of broken Dr Pepper bottle found beside Lowe’s body.

1. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT). It starts with a blood clot lodged in a vein deep in your body, often your legs. It can then move up and block the blood flow to your lungs, a condition known as a pulmonary embolism, which can cause serious organ damage and even death. Sometimes, pain, swelling, or a warm sensation in your leg can indicate DVT, but often, there are no warning signs at all.

2. Pancreatic cancer. Because symptoms such as jaundice, upper abdominal pain, and weight loss surface only when pancreatic cancer is in its advanced stages, it’s considered one of the deadliest forms of cancer. Those who smoke, are obese, or have a family history of pancreatic cancer or disorders are most at risk.

3. Silent myocardial infarction (MI). Another name for a heart attack, an MI occurs when blood supply to part of the heart is interrupted. Symptoms can vary, from chest pain to shortness of breath to dizzy spells. Frighteningly, approximately 25 percent of all MI cases are silent, meaning they exhibit no symptoms. Silent heart attacks are most common in the elderly and those with diabetes.

4. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), HIV initially exhibits no symptoms, though some of those infected may come down with flu-like symptoms two to four weeks after exposure. However, once a person does become infected with HIV, he or she is immediately capable of passing it on to others, especially through unprotected sexual contact or sharing hypodermic needles. If you do engage in risky behavior, the best way to protect yourself and the people around you is to get tested.

5.Diabetes. This serious condition can remain undiagnosed for quite some time because symptoms such as excessive thirst, frequent urination, and irritability may not set off your alarm bells at first, especially if you lead a hectic lifestyle. Thankfully, the statistics are getting better: According to the American Diabetes Association, only 24 percent of cases went undiagnosed in 2007, compared with 30 percent in 2005 and 50 percent in 1997.

So please go to the doctor especially you hard headed ass men we are no longer living for ourselves we are fatrher,husbands etc

Mom reconnects with her son 30 years after her ex-husband abducted him to Mexico – but he no longer speaks English

David Amaya Barrick thought his mother had abandoned him

Kathy Amaya has spent the last 30 years looking for her son after her husband abducted him as a toddler

The pair have still not been reunited but did have an emotional phone call

Raising the funds to go and see his mom in Wisconsin

A Chicago-born man kidnapped as a toddler and taken to Mexico by his father more than three decades ago is hoping to be reunited with his mother after he was was caught sneaking back across the border last month.

Mother Kathy Amaya, who lives in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, said today she has been waiting to see her son, David Amaya Barrick, 37, since learning on October 31 that border agents had picked him up but released him after they discovered he was a U.S. citizen trying to get home.

She said she has been looking for her child ever since her estranged husband abducted him and though she knew he was in Mexico, she did not have the money to hire a private investigator.

David was raised by his grandparents and does not speak any English. He had no idea his mother had been looking for him.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Soon to be reunited: David Amaya Barrick was raised my his grandparents and does not speak any English. He had no idea his mother had been looking for him

Proof: When he was caught sneaking over the border from Mexico, immigration did not believe he was an American citizen until they later found his birth certificate

He told NBC7 through an interpreter: ‘My father told me my mother had left me abandoned and orphaned. I don’t know my mother, and I find out she’s been looking for me for 30 years, and I have the longing to meet her for the first time.’

Barrick was rounded up with a group of illegal border crossers on October 30 in a canyon about a mile from a San Diego beach, but he explained that he was born in the US and had a right to be there.

Overjoyed: David Amaya’s mother Kathy has been looking for her son for 30 years

Though they did not believe him at first, border agents later verified his story.

They then contacted Kathy Amaya to let her know that her son had turned up and wanted to return to her.

‘They told me he was beaten and robbed before he crossed the border and the thieves took his money and his cell (phone),’ Amaya said. ‘They said he seemed like a really good guy, and that he only speaks Spanish and I don’t.’

Barrick was born in Chicago in 1977 while Amaya was married to his father, but she said her spouse became abusive and the couple split when the boy was one-years-old.

After some time had passed, Amaya began letting the father visit his son and ‘then one day (the child) was just gone’, she said.

‘I reported his abduction, but when police found out he was with his dad, they weren’t worried about it.’

Amaya said the boy’s father told her that he had taken the toddler, then two years of age, to Mexico and left him there with family members.

His father and aunt took David to Mexico under a one-month permit to visit his grandparents.

However, he told NBC7 his father left him there and he has only seen him a few times in the last 30 years.

Iglesia de Cristo Ministerios Llamada Final Inc de San Diego, based in Point Loma, is providing food and shelter for David as the ministry tries to raise the funds to get him to Wisconsin so he can see his mother and half siblings.

Future: David Amaya is focusing on learning English and playing the drums so he can be a better musician, but his immediate goal is to meet his mom

Kathy Amaya told NBC7 that David has four siblings, and she’s excited to have the family reunited.

‘He just told me that he doesn’t hold anything against me,’ she added. ‘So that makes me happy.’

David finished high school in Mexico and studied music in Monterrey, Mexico. He plays drums and went on tour with a band.

He is focusing on learning English and continuing his career as a musician – as soon as he meets his mother of course

N.C. teacher fired after allowing students to reuse needles for blood testing experiment

A North Carolina biology teacher is now out of a job after she allowed her students to share used needles to test their blood types.

Miyoshi McMillan, a teacher at Overhills High School in Spring Lake, was fired Oct. 24 after school officials learned that her students had pricked their fingers with lancing needles and left the needles on their lab trays so the students in the next class could use them.

McMillan’s students used a lab kit that included synthetic blood and seven lancets used to obtain drops of blood for testing, according to Patricia Harmon-Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Harnett County School District. The students had wiped down the needles with rubbing alcohol before placing them on the trays; however, that is not always a sufficient-enough way of killing blood-borne pathogens like hepatitis or HIV.

“We don’t want students to be, first of all, sharing a needle, and second, to have any type of human blood in the classroom,” Harmon-Lewis told the local CBS affiliate.

Students who chose not to take part in the experiment were instead assigned a five-page paper. School officials got involved when a concerned student excused herself and called her parents, who then told the assistant principals about the lesson.

McMillan believes she was unfairly scapegoated for the incident by the school district, as she was subbing in the classroom and all the equipment needed for the experiment was already in the room. ”I believe it’s really been blown up and it’s been a character strike against me,” McMillian told the local ABC affiliate, noting that her “main concern is the safety of the children.”

“From my understanding, I thought, ‘Well, it’s OK to use (a lancet). It’s there,” she added to the local CBSaffiliate. ”If it was not OK to use, then I think it should have been taken out during the summer. I wanted to make sure that what I had within me, that I shared my knowledge to those kids.”

McMillan had participated in a statewide program that allowed professionals to work while earning their full teaching certification, according to DigiTriad.com.

The school sent letters home to the parents of the students involved in the experiment informing them of the situation and encouraging them to get their blood tested.